The Best Snow Chains for SUVs and Trucks

Most snow chain advice is written for a sedan. An SUV or a pickup changes three things at once: the tire is bigger and often carries an LT designation, the vehicle weighs more so a loose chain does more damage, and the wheel wells range from generous on a pickup to surprisingly tight on a modern crossover.

This page is ordered by the things that go wrong on big vehicles specifically. The general case, including how chains are fitted and driven, is in the main snow chain roundup.

How we judged these, before any ranking

1. Sold for light-truck tire sizes. A chain range that tops out at car sizes is not a truck chain with a bigger number on the box. LT tires are larger and stiffer and the chain has to be built for them.
2. Tensioning. On a heavy vehicle the loose chain is the dangerous failure. Chains that take up their own slack remove the stop-and-retighten step, which is the one people skip in a storm.
3. A published clearance claim. Crossovers are where this bites. Many are built on car platforms with car-sized wheel wells, and their manuals specify class S or a figure in inches.
4. A published speed limit. Every chain has one. The ones that print it on the listing are telling you something useful before you buy.

What each one publishes

Two columns are mostly blank, and that is the category rather than these particular products. Clearance class and speed limits are usually in the instruction sheet rather than on the listing, which is why the ones that print them get credit here.

Read the sidewall, not the door sticker

Every chain on this page is sold by exact tire size, and each size is a separate product. The linked listing for each pick is one size; you must choose the one that matches your tire. Getting this wrong is the single most common snow chain return.

1. Read the size off the tire itself. The door jamb sticker lists what the vehicle left the factory on. Trucks and SUVs are the vehicles most often refitted with larger or all-terrain tires, which makes the sticker wrong.
2. Note the LT prefix if there is one. A size beginning LT - for example LT265/70R17 - is a light-truck tire, and some chain charts treat it differently from the same numbers without the prefix.
3. Check all four. A mismatched spare-turned-road-tire, or a staggered fitment, is more common on older trucks than people expect.
4. Match all three numbers. Width, aspect ratio and rim diameter all matter to the chart. One step out in any of them and the chain either will not close or hangs loose.

Crossovers are the tricky case

A pickup usually has room to spare. A crossover often does not - it may be an SUV in shape and a car underneath, with wheel wells cut close to the tire. That is why the third pick on this page is a chain that also covers cars: its published 0.25 in sidewall clearance is what gets it into wheel wells that rule out a heavy LT chain.

Before buying anything, open the owner manual to the wheels and tires section. If it says class S, or gives a clearance figure, that narrows the list immediately. If it says chains are not permitted, none of these are the answer - snow socks often are, because fabric adds almost no thickness.

Four-wheel drive does not replace chains

This is the belief that sends more SUVs into ditches than any other. All-wheel and four-wheel drive help you accelerate on snow. They do nothing whatsoever for braking or cornering, because those are limited by the four contact patches, not by how many of them are driven.

That is also why chain-control rules in many mountain areas apply to four-wheel-drive vehicles too, sometimes with the condition that chains are carried rather than fitted. The full argument, including which axle to chain on an AWD vehicle, is in do you need snow chains with AWD.

Why tensioning matters more on a truck

The classic instruction was to fit the chain, drive fifty feet, stop and retighten. On a car in a quiet street that is an annoyance. On a loaded pickup on a mountain shoulder in the dark it is the step that does not happen - and a heavy vehicle turning a loose chain into a flail does real damage in seconds.

Both of the top two picks remove that step: one with a built-in rubber tensioner, one with self-tightening ratchets that also center the chain on the tread. The value pick does not publish a tensioning mechanism, and its entry says so plainly.

Driving a heavy vehicle on chains

• Respect the published limit. The Auto-Trac states 30 mph. Assume the others are similar unless their instructions say otherwise.
• Take them off on clear pavement. Chains on dry road wear quickly and ride badly, and on a heavy vehicle the vibration is significant.
• Brake earlier than feels necessary. Chains add traction, but a heavy vehicle still carries a lot of momentum into a downhill corner.
• Practice once in the driveway. Big chains on big tires are heavier and stiffer to handle. Do it once on a dry day before you need to do it on a shoulder.

The short version

For a pickup or a body-on-frame SUV with room in the wheel wells, the Super Z LT is the pick - built for light-truck tires, with a tensioner that removes the retightening stop. The Auto-Trac LT/SUV is the alternative if self-centering ratchets appeal and 30 mph is fine for your roads. For a crossover with tight clearance, the Super Z6 is the one with a published sidewall figure to check against your manual. The AutoChoice is a credible value link chain if you accept retightening it. And do not put a passenger car chain on an LT tire, however close the numbers look.